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The Rock Film Quotes

Sean Connery as John Patrick Mason in The Rock (1996)

Stanley Goodspeed: Why didn’t you just tell them were the microfilm was and create a solution?John Mason: The moment they had the microfilm, they’d suicide me. Some solution.

General Hummel: Did they bother to tell you who I am and why I’m doing this or are they just using you like they do everybody else?John Mason: All I know is that you were big in Vietnam, I saw the highlights on television.General Hummel: Then you probably have no idea what it means to lead some of the finest men on God’s earth into combat and then watch their memories get betrayed by their own fucking government.John Mason: I don’t quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million. And, this is not combat, it’s an act of lunacy, General Sir. Personally, I think you’re a fucking idiot.General Hummel: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson.John Mason: “Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious,” according to Oscar Wilde.
[Hummel strikes him, and he falls to his knees]John Mason: Thank you for making my point.General Hummel: Where are the guidance chips?
[Points his gun at Mason’s head]General Hummel: WHERE ARE THE GUIDANCE CHIPS?John Mason: I’ve destroyed them.General Hummel: That was a bad move, soldier.

John Mason: When all this is over, you’ll go back home driving Carla and your baby insane in your beige Volvo. And I’ll be dead, or back in prison which is the same thing.

Stanley Goodspeed: “I’d take pleasure in guttin’ you, boy. I’d take pleasure in guttin’ you… boy.” What is wrong with these people, huh? Mason? Don’t you think there’s a lot of, uh, a lot of anger flowing around this island? Kind of a pubescent volatility? Don’t you think? A lotta angst, a lot of “I’m sixteen, I’m angry at my father” syndrome? I mean grow up! We’re stuck on an island with a bunch of violence-for-pleasure-seeking psycophatic marines, SHAME-ON-THEM!
[clears throat]Stanley Goodspeed: Anyway, I only got one chem round, and there’s two left… Mason?John Mason: Yes, I’m here. I was just thinking how wonderful it was when the inmates weren’t allowed to talk in here.

John Mason: I have a unique knowledge of this prison facility. I was formerly a guest here.

Agent Paxton: Mr. Mason, I’m Special Agent-in-Charge Ernest Paxton.John Mason: In charge of what? Fucking me over for another three decades?Agent Paxton: I don’t know anything about your previous matters. We’ve brought you here because there’s a situation that we think you can help us with.John Mason: And what might that be? I’ve been in jail longer than Nelson Mandela, so maybe you want me to run for president.

John Mason: Your mother, well… she was very special.Jade Angelou: Yes, she was. But I don’t think that we should romanticize what happened between you and her. Meeting in a bar after a Led Zeppelin concert, ya know? And I was the result.John Mason: Well, I’d like to think it would have led somewhere if only…Jade Angelou: If only what? Six federal marshals hadn’t kicked down her door and dragged you back to prison?

John Mason: [Mason and Goodspeed are defusing a poison gas rocket] What exactly does this stuff do?Stanley Goodspeed: If the rocket renders it aerosol, it could take out the entire city of people.John Mason: Really? And what happens if you drop one?Stanley Goodspeed: Happily, it’d just wipe out you and me.John Mason: How?Stanley Goodspeed: It’s a cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within thirty seconds. Any epidermal exposure or inhalation and you’ll know. A twinge at the small of your back as the poison seizes your nervous system…Stanley Goodspeed: [Mason has lifted the chem round to look at it] DO NOT MOVE THAT! Your muscles freeze, you can’t breathe, you spasm so hard you break your own back and spit your guts out. But that’s after your skin melts off.John Mason: My God…Stanley Goodspeed: Oh, I think we’d like God on our side at the moment, don’t you?

John Mason: Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.Stanley Goodspeed: “I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.”John Mason: Ah, an educated man.
[Stanley gives a modest wave]John Mason: That, of course, rules out the possibility of you being a field agent.

John Mason: You must see a certain pattern emerging here… Alexander Solzenhitsyn…Agent Paxton: Yeah, I heard of him. Didn’t he play hockey for the fucking Red Wings?John Mason: That’s the chap.

John Mason: [to his daughter] You know… you’re almost the only evidence that I exist.

Stanley Goodspeed: You broke out, let me see if I can get this straight, down the incinerator chute, on the mine car, through the tunnels to the power plant, under the steam engine – that was really cool by the way – and into the cistern through the intake pipe. But how, in the name of Zeus’ BUTTHOLE!… did you get out of your cell? I only ask because in our current situation, well, it could prove to be useful information. *Maybe*!
[Mason does not answer, but opens up his prison door with an improvised tool]Stanley Goodspeed: [Goodspeed hears noise from Mason’s door opening] Mason?
[to Goodspeed’s surprise, his own door suddenly opens]John Mason: Trade secrets, my son.

John Mason: [as they are escaping] Hummel won’t do it, he’s a soldier not a murderer. I read it in his eyes.Stanley Goodspeed: You read it in his eyes? I’m sorry, but that’s not a chance I can afford to take!John Mason: Okay, then talk louder.

Stanley Goodspeed: [Goodspeed knocks Mason off the ledge left hanging by a rope] Are you ok?John Mason: Perfectly fine you fucking idiot!